In which Cherry likes a roller coaster

Yesterday promised to be a grey, drizzly kind of day, and the kids were antsy, even at 8 in the morning. The playground was out due to the weather, and Wednesday is a busy day at the Cité and it was too late to register for the various activities online. We would have to wait in the ticket lines at the Cité to get it set up. The natural thing to do, of course, was to take the kids to Disney, since I couldn't think of anything else to do. Now, you may be thinking, "Why on earth would you go to Disney on a grey, drizzly kind of day?" The answer, naturally, is that everyone else is thinking what you are thinking, and so lines are shorter and, of course, a little bit of water never hurt anyone (other than the Wicked Witch of the West).

Since it was a spur of the moment kind of decision, I didn't have anything to pack for lunches, and I didn't really want to take the time to go to the grocery store, so we headed off to the park with nothing but our umbrellas and annual passes, leaving Blaise at home to work peacefully (and to go to the store to buy us something to eat for dinner). We rode Buzz Lightyear, and then waited in line for a long time to ride Star Tours, which is normally a FastPass ride, but which is currently undergoing renovations and so the FastPass entrance is currently closed. Cherry is just barely the minimum height for the ride, so it was the first time she's ridden it. She was not a fan. I'm fairly sure that I have bruises on my forearm from her squeezing it so tightly.

Then we rode It's a Small World to settle our (mine and Cherry's) stomachs, and Pirates of the Caribbean en route to the FastPass machines for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (henceforth known as BTMR). Much to our delight, we only had about 30 minutes to wait before our time slot, so we rode Phantom Manor, and then rode the coaster, with Cherry holding onto my hand for dear life. We wandered through the caves on Adventure Island, and when we came out it was raining in earnest and people were sheltering under whatever overhangs they could find. We, of course, had umbrellas, and so we set off for Discoveryland, hoping that perhaps nobody would want to ride Autotopia (the only ride we have not yet done) in the downpour. As it turned out, they were closing the ride just as we arrived, so we rode the rockets in the downpour and ended up absolutely soaked. (I also discovered that, much as I don't like Dumbo, I like the rockets even less.) We headed into Videopolis to dry off a bit, and then decided to see what the line looked like for BTMR. Perhaps nobody would want to ride that in the rain either? We bribed Cherry to come by offering her the chance to pick the next two rides afterwards.

After we rode the coaster, I picked up FastPasses again, thinking that just maybe we'd end up using them, and that there was no harm done if we didn't. Then we headed back to Pirates, which was Cherry's choice. By the time we had ridden it, our time slot had arrived, and so she agreed that we could go ride BTMR before we came back and rode Pirates (yet again). And then, at the end of her 3rd trip on BTMR she decided that what she really wanted to do was ride it again. And then even a 5th time. And then she wanted to ride it again, but it was time to go home, and so we did.